Protect the Kohala Coast from Industrial Aquaculture

A new venture proposing to place a dozen untethered, self-powered, open ocean fishpens off the Big Island’s North Kohala coast is applying for a variety of permits, including a lease on 247 acres of the sea, with the hopes of raising tuna for markets in Japan and the mainland. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) filed by Hawaiian Ocean Technologies, Inc. (HOTI) and made public on Feb. 23, 2009, states they plan to raise up to 6,000 tons yearly of ahi (Yellowtail and Bigeye tuna). This amount is unprecedented – Kona Blue, another Hawaiian fish farm, which HOTI compares itself to, raises 48 times less fish per year! Both the size of the project and new technology it proposes to use raise many questions.

We know very little about the details of the endeavor, and even less about how the fishpens – called Oceanspheres – will affect marine wildlife. We do know that similar fish farm projects worldwide have caused problems for habitat, wild fish, water quality, and the economies of coastal communities.

The DEIS process provides a way for the public to have input into major projects that could impact the environment, and also helps communities and managers to better understand potential consequences and ways to mitigate those consequences or consider alternate options for a project. Official comments on the HOTI ahi fish farming proposal (due by April 7, 2009) must be responded to in the Final EIS document, and should help provide answers to unanswered questions and a reality check on the overall viability of the project itself.

Learn More:

Read a description of the project from the Office of Environmental Quality Control (it's number 14 in the document).

Read the full DEIS (345 pages).

Watch a promotional video by HOTI on the project.

Subject:

Your Letter:

Aloha!

I have significant concerns about the DEIS that Hawaii Oceanic Technology, Inc. has submitted regarding its ahi aquaculture project off the Kohala Coast. While the proposed lease site is three times the size of any existing ocean fish farming operation in HI and aims to produce forty-eight times more fish than another local farm it claims to be similar to, HOTI’s DEIS fails to sufficiently address the effects of the proposed farm on: wild fish populations; conflicts with marine mammals, endangered species and fishermen; concerns about fish feed; impacts on cultural resources; impacts from the self-powered cages with their ocean thermal energy exchange that pulls up seawater from below each cage, and how it may affect benthic and pelagic organisms; overall economic impacts on Hawaii and related U.S. markets to which the fish will be exported.

Hawaiian waters are a public resource. HOTI essentially is asking the citizens of Hawaii to lease our land to a private company for profit that could cause substantial harm to public resources. Whatever impacts HOTI will have on existing natural resources will be shared by all of us, while profits will be only theirs. Therefore, it is imperative that HOTI address many issues before a conservation lease is granted.  I also urge the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Tetratech and the Office of Environmental Quality Control to hold HOTI accountable and provide the public with a more informative and thorough EIS.

Mahalo for your time.

Members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources

Board of Land and Natural Resources
HI

Fax:(808) 587-0390

Protect the Kohala Coast from Industrial Aquaculture

Members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources

Tetra Tech Hawaii